Letter to the Editor: The University of Calgary continues to play a role in creating an Islamophobia-friendly campus
Over the past year, Muslims at the University of Calgary have experienced a vast increase in targeted hate crimes and prejudice. On Oct. 10, 2023, President Ed McCauley released a statement to all students and staff, condemning terrorist attacks that occured in Israel on Oct. 7, 2024. The language in this email has proven to be deeply problematic, as firstly, it was the first statement on the Israel-Palestine Conflict, and disregarded the hundreds of thousands of Muslim and Palestinian lives that have been affected by the conflict. It is this selectiveness, where only harms committed by Muslims or Palestinians are seen as terrorism, and targets students who practise religion by wearing hijab, and further to people who are visibly of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent. The silence from the university thereafter, despite over 40,000 deaths, and despite many U of C students’ families being affected by the atrocities in Gaza, has further insinuated that crimes committed towards Muslim and Palestinian students are not worthy of acknowledgment or condemnation.
A year since October 7th, 2023
A full year has passed since then. The Muslim Students Association is the largest club on Campus with over 7,000 members, and our current and former executive team has been overwhelmed with the increased levels of Islamophobia on campus, cases that often parallel the same language and assumptions made by the university. We have received hundreds of emails, messages to our Instagram account, and executives personally approached regarding cases of Islamophobia, where hijabs have been attempted to have been ripped off. Individuals wearing Keffiyah’s, a symbol not religious in nature, but associated with the Pro-Palestine Movement have been continuously harassed. Many of these cases go unreported, since students do not trust Campus Security or any University Office due to the institution being seen as unsupportive of experiences of Islamophobia on campus. In order to effectively verify and track incidents of Islamophobia on campus, the MSA has created an Incident Reporting form which was released on Oct. 1, 2024. In just under three weeks since the form was released, we have received nine verified reports of Islamophobia on campus.
Negative discourse continues on campus
The rhetoric that our institution has posited regarding the experiences of Muslim and Palestinian Students on Campus have also been seen prevalent throughout the Campus Community, especially online. On a reddit thread titled The Palestinian Matter under the UCalgary subreddit, several reddit users have used language that looks down upon students from the middle east. For instance, one user writes, “you people hate the west, why would we [care] about you.” Another writes, “you’re pretty much the definition of the problem” in reference to students not denouncing Hamas when criticising the actions of Israel. A more directly incriminating comment comes from a user who states, “go back if you love it so much jihad joe.”
The discourse surrounding the encampment, protests, and other forms of student movements on campus over the course of the year has shown a divide in what the community believes is “acceptable behaviour” in terms of showing support for Palestine. Especially on forums like Reddit, people are more inclined to voice their more extreme opinions against Muslims and Palestinian supporters to portray them in an unreasonable and uneducated light, often discrediting the point of what they are fighting for, often also making extreme generalizations about the Muslim and Palestinian community.
For instance, In the “Palestine and Encampment Megathread” under the UCalgary Subreddit, several comments portray this. For instance, one user quotes, “find it worrying how people don’t see that these ‘protestors’ are merely anti-semites looking to cause trouble. They DENY Hamas’ war crimes and JUSTIFY hate against the Jews / Israelis.” Another user states, “Its so bizarre to me to see purple haired 20 something progressives side with a religious fundamentalist group who believes that homosexuals should be stoned to death and that women shouldn’t be allowed to speak without their husband’s consent.” Another states, “Good that the province is cracking down on the supporters for Hamas. Terrorists must be eradicated at all costs, these protests are a useless distraction and shouldn’t be tolerated. Go stand in a corner of the road and stand with a board in your hands, don’t block roads or parks or university campuses”. These comments make very general accusations and generalisations about the supporters of Palestine on campus, essentially labelling them all as unreasonable and supporters of terrorism and war crimes.
Issues arise for students in the multi-faith space
These sentiments have made campus an especially dangerous place for Muslims, which has risen significantly this year. On Oct. 7th, 2024, multiple students who were attending evening prayers at the Vitruvian Multi-Faith Space reported to have found copies of the Holy Qur’an strewn on the floor by a bookshelf in the space. The MSA made a recent statement regarding the incident, but a few factors indicate that it was Islamophobic, and targeted in nature. The first is that only Qur’ans were thrown on the floor and no other Holy Book was thrown or knocked down to the ground, despite Qur’ans being on the same shelf as other Holy Books. Alongside this, through our own investigation, we have been contacted by individuals who were at the space and used the Qur’ans last and all have mentioned that the likelihood of them falling on their own is highly unlikely since the Holy Books were placed deep within the shelves which are sturdy. This incident is currently under investigation by Calgary Police Service and Campus Security.
Although we acknowledge that further verification is required on this specific incident, the factors aforementioned alongside the timing of this blatantly disrespectful and Islamophobic act, seems to be a pushback to pro-Palestenian movements taking place on this day. The acknowledgement of October 7th, a year later, has been divided in a few ways, where students are split in terms of who should be supported and how they are generally perceived. The disrespect of the Quran’s in the multifaith center has provided a decent insight into the inherent resentment for Muslims and their beliefs, something that has manifested again, by the use of language that stereotypes and limits the Muslim identity to “conflict.”
Going forward
The U of C has contributed greatly to the negative discourse towards the Muslim community and Palestinians, and has taken a stance on the conflict which has not been clarified. Time and time again, they have shown their disregard for the need to support our community and instead have shown aggression to avoid being accountable to students. The response to the May 9 encampment was a perfect example of how violent and aggressive they anticipated a group of peaceful protesters to be, and a manifestation of Colonial Violence against students who have been in support of the Palestinian cause. We strongly advocate for an independant and public investigation into the decision making that was done on May 9th. Had they made a better judgement, the demands of students to be held accountable could have been achieved without the lasting distrust towards the decisions of administration.
Going forward, the MSA at the U of C and other advocative student groups continue to ask for support, disclosure and divestment from any ties to Israel from the university. Although it has been an uphill effort, we are determined to continue this journey with the support of our members and students, and are committed to creating change in the lasting negative attitude towards our cause.
—Muntaha Aamir, VP External of the Muslim Student’s Association (MSA)
Letters to the Editor published in the Gauntlet do not necessarily reflect the views of the Gauntlet editorial board. The Gauntlet retains the right to edit submissions for brevity and clarity.